Experimental research facilities at FOA for finding land mines with radar in 2000

Authors:

  • Björklund Svante
  • Axelsson Dan

Publish date: 2001-02-19

Report number: FOA-R--00-01810-310

Pages: 34

Written in: English

Abstract

Unexploded land mines left in post-war zones, have become one of the greatest problems for the people when returning to normal life. The need for better methods of detecting and neutralizing mines is gigantic. At FOA, hand-held mine detectors based on ultra-wide-band radar techniques are under development. Compared to metal detectors, radars can find mines without metallic content. When developing mine finding radar systems, real measured test data is essential since the environment is too complex to allow an analytical calculation or accurate enough numerical simulation of the received radar signal. This report is intended for the reader wanting an overview of the data collection systems and facilities for mine finding with radar at FOA. The report describes the man-carried demonstrator HUMUS for test of hardware and software. It describes the indoor test site with its sand box and computer controlled XY-table, by which extensive and very controllable measurements can be conducted. Further, the two outdoor test landscapes for mine reconnaissance, one consisting of eight boxes with soils of different properties and one being a mine field in a natural Swedish terrain are described. Also, reference objects, measurement instruments and sensor antennas are briefly described.